A Christmas Bushfire

I recently returned home just before Christmas from a whirlwind trip overseas to learn that there were multiple out-of-control fires raging very close to my family’s home. Before finally being extinguished after Christmas, the fire destroyed scores of homes & thousands of hectares of land. Fortunately, my family’s home was spared, with the containment line of the fire being within 20 meters of our back fence. I cannot express enough gratitude to the NSW Rural Fire Service & the local firefighting volunteers who put their own lives on the line to protect the community.

The following is a series of photographs I captured about 50 meters from my family home, in an area that had been so badly burnt that the soil is now scorched pure white. The accompanying quotes express what I cannot.

1/5‘Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.’

– Winston Churchill

2/5
‘I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.’

– Charles Dickens

3/5
‘Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind.’

– Mary Ellen Chase

4/5‘Christmas is the keeping-place for memories of our innocence.’

– Joan Mills

5/5
‘A lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.’